The present invention relates to a drive device for a motor vehicle.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Electric and hybrid vehicles which are able to be driven by at least one electric motor via a corresponding drive device of the motor vehicle are known from the prior art as well as from series production of motor vehicles, especially of automobiles. In such motor vehicles, wheels of the vehicle are driven by an electric motor via corresponding drive shafts.
A transaxle construction is known for electric motors, which is not to be confused in this context with the arrangement of one drive unit in a front area of the vehicle and an associated transmission on a rear drive axle of the vehicle. Transaxle construction here is especially to be understood as the electric motor, especially its rotor element, being installed between driven wheels transverse to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. In this transaxle construction torques provided by an electric motor via its rotor element to drive the wheels are initially taken off at a first axial end of the electric motor on a first side and then, for example via a hollow shaft, fed to a second side spaced away from the first side in the transverse direction of the vehicle to a second axial end of the electric motor spaced away from the first axial end in the transverse direction of the vehicle. Two concentric shafts are provided for this type of arrangement, which demand a respective and thus duplicated outlay for example to present separate supports of the shafts. In addition, these drive devices require relatively large installation space in the axial direction of the electric motor.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved drive device for a vehicle to obviate prior art shortcomings and to construct as to have small installation space requirement.